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El Cajon, California has 16 accredited schools offering substance abuse counseling programs, with tuition ranging from $1,146 to $50,958 per year for indexed programs. El Cajon has a population of about 104,909. Median household income is $66,478 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 22.2% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area, the top-earning substance abuse counseling-related role is Social and Community Service Manager at a median $79,770 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer substance abuse counseling programs near El Cajon, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from El Cajon city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from El Cajon. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior CollegesIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all California schools on the California substance abuse counseling page.
El Cajon is part of the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area (BLS area code 41740). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to California statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor | $57,660 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $51,528 |
| Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker | $75,570 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $67,534 |
| Social and Community Service Manager | $79,770 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $71,287 |
| Social and Human Service Assistant | $49,500 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $44,236 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 104,909 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $66,478 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 22.2% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 111.9 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 16 accredited schools offering substance abuse counseling programs near El Cajon. The closest is National University in San Diego, CA (9.9 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is InterCoast Colleges-Santa Ana (81.0 miles). 7 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying substance abuse counseling-related roles near El Cajon are: Social and Community Service Manager ($79,770), Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker ($75,570), Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor ($57,660). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with California statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Santee, CA is 4.0 miles from El Cajon and has its own set of local substance abuse counseling programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
El Cajon’s median household income of $66,478 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in El Cajon while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and California public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for El Cajon:
Data verified: August 11, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Substance Abuse Counseling Schools in California (2026)
